The findings from an investigative report into members of the 2018 Canadian men's junior hockey team are under appeal, Hockey Canada announced.
Hockey Canada announced there's an appeal of the findings from an independent adjudicative panel into whether or not members of Canada’s 2018 national men's junior team broke Hockey Canada’s code of conduct.
One year ago, in November 2022, the independent adjudicative panel was provided Henein Hutchison Robitaille LLP’s final investigative report related to allegations of gang sexual assault by members of the 2018 National Junior Team. The alleged assault occurred in June 2018 following a Hockey Canada event honoring the gold medal-winning world junior team, involving multiple members of the 2018 team.
According to Hockey Canada, an in-camera appeal process will “begin in the near future.” In the meantime, however, Hockey Canada said it is “not able to share details of the report, including its findings at this time to ensure that we do not interfere with the integrity of the appeal process.”
The independent adjudicative panel provided its final report to all involved parties. Shortly after that action, a notice of appeal was filed, which is permitted under the organization’s investigation and adjudication procedures, according to Hockey Canada.
“We thank the members of the independent adjudicative panel for their efforts in this proceeding,” Hockey Canada stated in a news release on Tuesday.
While the appeal process continues, “all players from the 2018 National Junior Team remain suspended by Hockey Canada and are currently ineligible to play, coach, officiate or volunteer with Hockey Canada-sanctioned programs.”
Earlier this month, new Hockey Canada CEO Katherine Henderson said Hockey Canada was in a holding pattern waiting for the report, which has now been delivered.
“Like the public at this point, we are in waiting mode to see what these three independent entities are going to do and how this information informs their adjudicative process, their judicial process, if you’re the police, their criminal process,” Henderson said. “But what we’ve done, from what I understand, is we’ve co-operated with everyone, and that would be the intent going forward for sure.”
According to Hockey Canada, it's continued to co-operate with the London Police Service as it continues with its legal process.
Henderson and Hockey Canada have acknowledged their role in rectifying the procedural and policy issues through new hirings and the guidance of a transitional board of directors. As discussed at Hockey Canada’s ‘Beyond the Boards’ summit this year, Hockey Canada also has an interest in getting to the root cause of hockey’s cultural issues. Incoming CEO Katherine Henderson also spoke of being an active part of that solution.
"Sports do change over time," Henderson said. "I want to be a big part of that change, and so part of it is understanding root causes. Then the next part is really understanding what are the interventions and with who.”
The probe into Hockey Canada’s operations and the alleged 2018 sexual assaults has been ongoing for more than a year. Initially, the London Police Service conducted an investigation into the matter in 2019, concluding their investigation without pressing charges. It has since reopened the investigation but has yet to press charges.